Let Him Stay
In the comments section to the previous post Smelder linked to Let Him Stay. The site tells the story of a gay couple, Steve Lofton and Roger Croteau, in Florida who take in children of HIV positive mothers. The have taken care of a half dozen children in a foster care capacity. One of the children, Bert, no longer tests positive for HIV so has been deemed "adoptable" by whichever organisation sets up adoptions in Florida. The laws in Florida bans all gay people from adopting children.
The story is interesting and if you live in Florida or any other State you can do something to help Steve Lofton and Roger Croteau and possibly change Florida law. Sadly as a Canadian I wouldn't have much clout in this situation.
Gay Adoption
I'm currently watching a local call-in show where the question is "Should Gays Have the Right to Adopt?". The "Yes" side is supported by Hillary Cook who is a spokesperson for EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) and the "No" side is supported by Reverend Ken Campbell who is the director of the Canadian Civilized Majority . This topic was probably spurred by the Primetime special with Barbara Walters last week.
I am watching this show and can't understand why someone can be that ignorant and intolerant. The Reverend arguing for the "No" side makes me mad. His main argument is that the "well being of the child is the most important thing" and this is his reason why gays shouldn't be able to adopt children. The only negative effect that he can come up with is that the child is denied the influence of both sexes during their development, but using this argument would also mean that being raised by a single parent is not in the well-being of the child. He hasn't come up with any good arguments for his side of the discussion and the few people that support the Reverend haven't been very useful either.
As you can tell I don't see any problem with gay adoptions. I would rather see a child being adopted and loved by same-sex parents than being moved around from foster home to foster home. I do agree with the Reverend that the "well being of the child" is the most important thing but that doesn't mean that being raised by gay parents isn't in the "well-being" of the child. I know several gay people and I think any of them would make great parents and create a loving nuturing environment.
I think the main thing that makes me made is that he is a Reverend and people look to him for guidance. If he is teaching them that homosexuality is evil and unnatural I don't want to meet anyone from his congregation. I know that not all of his congregation would think this way (since I still believe that you can go to church and have a mind of your own). It just bugs me that he is using his beliefs to argue about something like this. I really dislike when people believe in something so strongly that there is no way to change their way of thinking.
That is enough of a rant for now.
CKMS Fun Time
I finally edited the pictures from the radio station on Saturday night. No pictures of me in the batch (since I was the fool taking them). They aren't anything special but people like to look at pictures.
So with no further delay I present Saturday Night at CKMS 100.3 Radio Waterloo.
Burn, Baby Burn
This is an excellent idea thought up by Chris and Max. Register, create a summer themed music CD and send it off to five other webloggers. It appears that it is only open to Americans and Canadians. I emailed Chris and asked about the Canadian thing and he said that there are probably enough Canadians for this to work but he was going to ask the people who are currently registered whether they mind a little extra postage.
If you sign up you might be one of the lucky 5 who get a summer themed CD from me. I will have to start working on it soon. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to make up a good mix CD.
Addiction
Addictions comes in many forms. I'm addicted to many things. Used CDs, used books, sunflower seeds (but only when a bag of sunflower seeds are sitting around). My newest addiction is vinyl. No not the material vinyl I mean music records. About three weeks ago I was at my parents place and I found a record player I bought used about 3 years ago. I decided to bring it up to my school home and set it up. I am now addicted to buying vinyl. My housemate and I have been buying copious amounts of vinyl in the past couple of weeks. We went out last night down to a local used record shop and picked up about 40 records between the two of us. We found some really good records as well. I picked up Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, a Wynton Marsalis record, some Tom Jones, Harry Belafonte, and numerous more. My housemate picked up a lot of 80's music. Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, New Order. He also found some good Rolling Stones and Police albums.
The best thing about this is that almost all of these records cost us a buck each. I love records.
